Oh my word Check, Cheque, Checkered, Chequered

Artworks on a chequered canvas (not canvass)? During the British rule in India, many Indian kings and princess surrendered to the British because they were (literally) checkmated! Check has many meanings, and functions both as a noun and a verb (checks, checked, checking): to examine, to inspect whether something is in order or not; to control, to limit, to halt, to verify, to compare with someone or something.

She checks her online bank-accounts regularly to ensure she is not a victim to hackers. As a noun it means to stop something (you have to keep checks and balances on the plan; in chess, check refers to a situation where in the king is threatened, and he ought to move or yield; a mark (a tick mark).

He regularly checks the tread on the tyres of his two-wheeler. Check has many meanings but in relation to money, a check (is a document) is authorising someone (usually a ban k) to pay money to whom the check is issued. In this context, in British and Indian English its spelling is ‘cheque’.

Check or cheque is an order to the bank instructing the banker to pay the money to a person. Cheque are: postdated cheque, stale cheque, open cheque, and crossed cheque. If the cheque is not honoured, the issuer is in trouble (legally). A bill in the restaurants is also referred to as a check.

Check forms phrases: check in, check into, check off, check out, check over, check scale (whether a liquid is filled to the requisite level or not). Checkered is the past tense and past participle of checker (checkers, checkering, checkered) meaning to develop to alternating patterns, to put markings in a pattern of alternating light and dark spots such as in a checkerboard (chessboard).

Checker (or chequer) is a person who checks something especially the financial transactions such as clerk or teller of a bank. Checkered (or chequered) is an adjective means a pattern or design on fabrics, ceramics, tiles, etc divided into squares of alternating light and dark patches or designs;

Checkered also refers to something having variations, or uncertainty; not consistent, changeable. He had a checkered past but he is undoing that image. What is the preferred colour of checkered marble floors? Black and white like on the chessboard?Do you prefer white and black chequered (or checkered) fabrics or red and black? Checkered also refers to having periods of failure as well as successes in the past.

History is a retelling of an area’s checquered past.

Kovuuri G Reddy